Blackhawks News

Crosby And Canada Savor Win, Get Ready For Swiss

VANCOUVER -- With almost 24 hours to digest his first Olympic experience, Sidney Crosby realizes he played a big part in Canada's opening win in Group A play on Tuesday night against Norway.

It was Crosby's pass that found Jarome Iginla unattended and allowed the Calgary Flames captain to finally solve Norway goalie Pal Grotnes in the opening minutes of the second period. From there, the rout was on and Canada cruised to a confidence-building 8-0 win against the Norwegians at Canada Hockey Place.

"It is good to get that first one," Crosby said during Wednesday's post-practice availability. "We had some really good chances in the first (period), I thought. It was a good test of our patience.

"We just wanted to make sure we stuck with things, no matter the situation. We knew they would try to frustrate us and trap a bit, so I thought we responded pretty well.

Actually, Canadian coach Mike Babcock did change things up some when Canada struggled to score in the first. He plucked Iginla off fourth-line duty and put him with Crosby.

The move paid immense dividends as Iginla got a hat trick and Crosby had three assists.

"I'd imagine almost anybody that plays with Crosby will have good chemistry with him and Nasher (Rick Nash) because they are such good players," Iginla told NHl.com Wednesday. "When you play with him, you just have to play hard, shoot the puck, go to the net for him and get him the puck and good things will happen."

A three-point night in his Olympic debut was about as much as Crosby could ask for.

"It was a great atmosphere and I thought we did what we wanted to do -- improve as the game went on," he said. "We did a good job of that and now we look forward to our next game."

That game is against Switzerland on Thursday. The Swiss played valiantly against Team USA in Tuesday's opener, but fell 3-1. They played a defense-first style that frustrated the Americans at times, but were never quite as cynical in philosophy as the Norwegians were in Tuesday's game.

Crosby says the Canadians will be ready for whatever comes their way.

"The (Swiss) have a lot of speed and, again, they are going to try to frustrate us and play tight defensively," Crosby said. "You look at a lot of teams in this Olympics and they play well as a team and are well prepared and you have to be ready every game."

Four years ago, to the day, Canada met the Swiss in group play in Torino. The Swiss walked away with a shocking 2-0 victory as goalie Martin Gerber had the performance of a lifetime -- so you can bet the Canadians will be ready when they take the CHP ice Thursday afternoon.